Behold the result! Opening in London before vast audiences, the queen, the Prince of Wales, and other royal personages of high rank flocked to see the man and those he had brought with him into the very heart of the English metropolis.
There, upon the soil of the mother country, before tens of thousands of Britishers, the Wild West held sway for months, while the hero of the plains, the prairie boy, found himself honored by royalty, a welcome visitor across the threshold of palaces, fêted by men whose names were known the wide world over.
Bearing the stars and stripes in his hand, mounted upon his finest charger, Buffalo Bill saluted the queen, who rose, and bowed in salutation to the American flag, borne by so fit a representative of his country.
Nor did the triumphal march of the Wild West end here, for Buffalo Bill sought other lands to conquer, and bore the stars and stripes into France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and elsewhere, presenting the American flag before more peoples than it had ever been seen by during its existence of a century.
Traveling through Europe with three railway trains of seventy-five cars, carrying over three hundred people, with the horses of our plains, the buffaloes, and wild steers, the Wild West was the observed of all observers, and crowned heads everywhere gave Buffalo Bill, his cowboys, and Indians a welcome, even his holiness the pope granting them an audience.
Living in their own camp, eating American food, the people of the Wild West did much to educate foreigners into a taste for American hams, corn-meal, and other luxuries; and it was through the sending of so much corn to Cody’s commissary that Colonel Murphy of the Department of Agriculture won the name of “Corn-meal Murphy.”
From this explanatory sketch the reader can readily see how it was that Buffalo Bill went from the prairie to the palace.
For the benefit of those of my readers who are interested in the study of physiognomy, I submit the following physiognomical study of Colonel Cody by Prof. A. J. Oppenheim, B. P. A., of London:
“The length from the opening of the ear to the outer corner of the eye shows great intellectual capacity and quickness of comprehension. The forehead is broad, square, and practical. The deep setting of the eyes in their sockets denotes great shrewdness and keenness of perception. The fullness under the eye means eloquence and the faculty of verbal expression. The downward projection of the outer corner of the eyebrows means contest—he never gives in. The unevenness of the hair of the eyebrows shows hastiness of temper and irritability when under restraint, but the straightness of the eyebrows themselves denotes truthfulness and sincerity. The height of the facial bone generally indicates great intensity and strong powers of physical endurance. The ridge in the center of the nose means relative defense, protection, quixotism, taking up other people’s cudgels and fighting their battles for them. The thinness of the bridge of the nose denotes generosity and love of spending money. Colonel Cody might make many fortunes, but he would never succeed in amassing one. The length of the nostrils shows activity; the manner in which they dilate and curl, pride; and their size denotes courage and fearlessness. The transparency of the eyelids and the fineness of the eyelashes is indicative of a keenly sensitive, sympathetic, and benevolent nature. Though a large-sized man, and a great warrior, his heart is as tender as a woman’s. The angle of the jaw denotes determination and strength of purpose, but the narrowness of the lower part of the face suggests a complete absence of coarseness or brutality. The length of the throat shows a marvelous independence of spirit and love of fresh air and exercise. The wavy lines in the forehead mean hope and enthusiasm; the two perpendicular ones between the eyes, love of equity and justice.”
To-day Buffalo Bill stands as a typical plainsman, the last of a race of men whose like will never be seen again.